Ships

[OneDragons]

On a previous post I noticed people are saying fighters are no use in battle against ships. If this is true where is the point in having fighters other than for scout ships?

Also what are good ship type combinations in fleets and what they be used for specifically?

What is each type of ship supposed to be used for e.g. fighter, corvette, destroyer etc...

Are inteceptors any good for anything?
If it just a case of how big your ships are then isnt it just as well to build the biggest baddest ship you can and forget about the rest?

[Gregorius]

Yeah, the balancing is not that good, should be better in Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage, but it is always good to have a cheap fighter scout for the submissions that needs only a ship to be somewhere because they are fast and cheap to support. Then for a good battle you'll need destroyers and battleships as well because when you attack planets you don't want to waste a lot of time and want to finish it as quickly as possible with huge firepower, but sometimes there are unexpected things happening when you have to react quickly so you need ships that can manouver fast.

[spider13]

It's true that fighters are not useful. The best is Heavy Cruiser and Battleship. If you get something else let them join the fleet.

[Tweaked700]

Well this question sparks me interest! Ok, here we go. If you are playing a skirmish, don’t bother building anything but HEAVY Cruisers and Battleships. I just can’t see any reason why you would want to build any of those sub class ships, such a waste. I’ve only really played as the Solarians so here is the best load out for them

Heavy Cruisers


Hyperdrive MK 5 (I think 5 is the highest)
Stealth Radar
Deflector Shield
Turbo Lasers
Turbo Lasers
Menson Cannon
Anti-Matter Ray
Computer Jammer

Battleship

Hyperdrive MK 5 (I think 5 is the highest)
Stealth Radar
Deflector Shield
Turbo Lasers
Turbo Lasers
Menson Cannon
Anti-Matter Ray
Computer Jammer
Advanced EMC

And for those like me who just love pecking at the enemy with
Heavy Corvettes

Hyperdrive 4 (Second highest?)
(Best radar possible)

best lasers possible
Photon Blaster
Gravity Shield (I think that’s the best you can put on)
Advanced ECM or battle computer ( I don’t think you can put a battle computer on…I think)

And well, that’s it.

I have tons of strategies for fighting a fleet twice your size but I’ll save that for later.

[OneDragons]

so why use corvettes when you could just build bigger ships?

Any good fleet strategies would be appreciated. Also is flying your fleet directly in to the enemy always a good idea or is it better to keep distance in your formation?

[vakundok]

RE- EDIT:
A fought some battles against the shinari with good to terrible results. (2 to 17 lost ships from 30 against their 69 and a few hundred fighters.)

1. I do not recommend building heavy corvettes after the introduction of cruisers. Even when they are otherwise overwhelming they cannot catch fleets with speed of 16.
2. Fighters are completely useless against deflector shields. I do not recommend them. (They can be used against the kah'rens who do not have that shield, to finish a ship which lost its shield and possibly against the AI to force its cloaked ships to fire. But these require hundreds or thousands of them and not enough to refund the investment.)
3. Against fighters it is better to use different types of lasers, but it is basicly unneeded.

Now my new favorite solarian battleship:

- Hyperdrive mk5
- Photon (Stealth?) radar
- Turbo lasers
- Turbo lasers
- Deflector shield
- Ship manipulator (or Paralyser until you can get it)
- Anti- matter ray
- Combat cloak
- Advanced ECM

and the cruiser:
- Hyperdrive mk5
- No radar
- Turbo lasers
- Turbo lasers
- Deflector shield
- Paralyser
- Anti- matter ray
- Combat cloak
(In each fleet one of the cruisers is equipped with computer jammer instead of the combat cloak.)

Why?
Well, the special weapons, while less powerfull than 'conventional' heavy guns, can affect a whole group, so they are more effective against enemy fleets which are far larger than yours. However they have a drawback: they can be jammed. There are two possibilities: Fire before the jammers reach you (the paralyser and the ship maniulator have quite fast recharge), and/or move away from the jamming. Since the area of the battle is relatively small, the enemy can easily follow you maintaining the jamming. That is why the combat cloak is used. Not to mention they can close on enemy ships left behind to avoid being jammed ...